I read this book on the 42nd anniversary of the Apollo 11 landing and the day before the landing of the last space shuttle flight. The memory of achievement and the uncertainty of the future were brought out in sharp contrast in this book. This is a well written and interesting look at the Apollo 11 mission written shortly afterwards. There are many sections of communications transcripts from the mission and descriptions of the families back on earth. The epilogue by Arthur C. Clarke made the biggest impression on me. The optimism looking forward from the mid 70's was humorous and discouraging. Some of the future technologies that they expected to have in the future are not even close to coming to fruition looking backwards. The optimism that we would continue on a path of explorations, building on the sucess of the Apollo program compared to the current lack of direction in the US space program is humbling. ( )

Forty years ago, the first person from this planet set foot on Earth's satellite, the Moon. He was Neil Alden Armstrong and with Buzz Aldrin, he formed the crew of the Apollo 11 Lunar Module Eagle (Michael Collins remained in orbit about the Moon aboard Command Module Columbia). They were followed by a further six missions, one of which - Apollo 13 - did not make it to the lunar surface. On 14th December 1972, Gene Cernan and Harrison Schmitt climbed back into the Apollo 17 LM Challenger and shortly afterwards it departed. No one has visited the Moon since.

First on the Moon by Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins is the definitive account of the first mission to land on the Moon. It was published immediately after the event, and was written with the assistance of Gene Farmer and Dora Jane 'Dodie' Hamblin, two of the Life journalists who had exclusive access to the astronauts and their families.